🤝 Embrace Ideas Fest, round two

It’s Wednesday, Boston.

👎 Bad news: Taste of Somerville has been postponed to Thursday due to rain in the forecast (but you can still get tix here).

👍 Good news: Tix for the annual Bar Stars event at Assembly Row are officially on sale. For $25, you can sample tons of food and drink from The Row’s restaurants and vote on who should be crowned “bartender supreme.”

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Block party cash

• Teeny weeny art

• Free Willy spotting

Up first...

COMMUNITY

The Embrace Ideas Festival returns

The Embrace Ideas Festival is back for round two. Now in its second year, this three-day festival (organized by the same group behind The Embrace sculpture) rooted in arts, ideas, and public scholarship, is meant to be an example of how the country should celebrate Juneteenth.

Here’s what to know:

🎶 It kicks off today at 10:30 a.m. with a concert near The Embrace on the Common. The inaugural Juneteenth Concert will be the first public gathering at the sculpture since its unveiling earlier this year, featuring performances from Amandi Music, Boston Arts Academy Spirituals Ensemble, and Voices of Embrace Choir. Mayor Wu will also be making a musical appearance. It’s technically free, but RSVPing is encouraged.

🎤 This year’s theme is "Here and Present, The Art of Reclaiming Space and Time.” And the idea is that each speaker, panel, and celebration will shine light on how we can interrupt our “zero-sum game thinking when it comes to racial justice.”

👀 And the speaker lineup is stacked. Day one’s keynote will be a conversation between Dr. Lee Pelton and historian Annette Gordon Reed on the work of telling our nation’s full history. On day two, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones (the woman behind The 1619 Project) and Jenee Osterheldt of A Beautiful Resistance will discuss how storytelling plays when speaking truth to power. And Chef Elle Simone will moderate day three’s keynote on storytelling in the kitchen across the diaspora with Boston food influencer Emmanuel Mervil and Hyde Park Chef Krayla Brice.

🎉 The festival will cap off on Friday with a block party at Roxbury Community College. There will be local turntablists, music, and some of the area's best BIPOC-owned food trucks. It goes from 2 to 8:30 p.m., so you can stop in whenever.

🚨 Important note: Tickets for the panels have sold out, but there’s still plenty of space at both the Embrace Concert and Block Party.

🤝 At the end of the day, this festival is about “creating a greater sense of inclusivity around America’s first true Independence Day,” according to Embrace Boston exec. director Imari Paris Jeffries. “This annual celebration will provide our communities with the necessary tools for all people to celebrate the Holiday, and in turn, create a safe space for learning, ideas, and enjoying music together.”

TOGETHER WITH LE DINER EN BLANC

Giveaway alert!

💃 Heads up! The annual secret pop-up dinner, Le Diner En Blanc 2023, is taking place June 24, and we’re giving away two tickets. To be eligible, refer a friend below and have them accept your invite between June 12 and June 14. If you have already referred a friend to B-Side (and they’ve accepted), you're eligible! Full details below*

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🥳 Boston will pay you up to $750 to have a block party. Mayor Wu announced that apps are officially open for block party grants to purchase food, supplies, and other goodies for summer block parties. The city will also be offering block party kits for residents to borrow for their shindigs. But there are two key things to remember: One, you have to apply at least four weeks before your proposed event, and two, you have to apply for a block party permit before submitting the grant application since they can take some time to approve.

🤑 Mass.’ tax-free weekend is nearly set. Although not official until a vote on Thursday, state lawmakers plan to schedule this year's mandatory sales tax holiday for the weekend of Aug. 12 and 13. Translation: You won’t have to pay the state’s 6.25% sales tax on most retail sales of less than $2,500. Residents and business leaders may wish for the annual holiday to stretch just one more weekend, but there appears to be little interest among Beacon Hill Democrats to expand it. Need to brush up on which items qualify? Here’s the full list.

🤏 The MFA’s new exhibit will help you appreciate the little things in life. Microphiles, this one’s for you. Tiny Treasures: The Magic of Miniatures is an upcoming exhibit exploring all things mini and how artists play with our perception of scale. The items span from 7th century B.C.E. to present day, including amulets from ancient Egypt to miniaturized everyday items. Although minis are often overlooked compared to grand paintings and sculptures, in many cases, they’re more demanding to create. The exhibit is set to open July 1.

🎆 The deets for the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular just dropped. The Pops and a slew of guest performers will return to the Hatch Shell on the Esplanade for a three-hour extravaganza on July 4 starting at 8 p.m (the fireworks display starts at 10:30 p.m.). R&B Soul group En Vogue will headline the concert, along with performances from Broadway star Mandy Gonzalez, platinum-selling country duo Locash, and more. If you can’t make it in person, the show will also be broadcast live on Bloomberg TV and Radio, and on WHDH.

QUICK POLL!

💸 Do you think Mass. should have more than one tax-free weekend?

ONE LAST THING

Orca spotting

Killer whales may have stolen great white sharks’ thunder on the Cape.

In a rare sighting, four orcas were spotted off the coast of Provincetown hanging around with some dolphins this week. And this pod is clearly getting around, as it was also spotted by New England Aquarium scientists off the coast of Nantucket on Sunday. You can see the video here.

One of the scientists on the boat noted that there aren’t many orcas in this neck of the woods, so it’s "always unusual to see killer whales in New England waters."

And while orcas are generally not dangerous to humans, they have been in the news lately for attacking boats off the coast of Europe, in what appears to be a coordinated effort.

😳 Thanks for reading! New fear unlocked.

🍦 The results are in: Respondents were split over whether they’d try J.P. Licks’ new Everything Bagel-flavored ice cream. A third were yays, a third were hard passes, and a third were only down if it were free. One person wrote: “I am not going to pay to put that ish in my body.” Same.